


the plain sense of things

by sprx77



Category: Naruto
Genre: BAMF Haruno Sakura, F/M, It was supposed to be porn but instead they just cared about each other and were all sappy, M/M, Multi, Polyamory, Rude - Freeform, Sumigakure Winter Wishes 2017, Team as Family, baths
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-17
Updated: 2018-01-17
Packaged: 2019-03-06 03:59:19
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,534
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13403001
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sprx77/pseuds/sprx77
Summary: Prompt: Sai, Sakura and Naruto, as a team, falling into bed together for the first time.





	the plain sense of things

**Author's Note:**

  * For [amako](https://archiveofourown.org/users/amako/gifts).



The scourge of the elemental nations came home with scratches and bruised ribs, a black eye and a stiff shoulder. Her ANBU team body flickered to her and caught her as she collapsed at the front gates, having put one foot in front of the other for god knows how long and lasting just long enough to offer a half-smirk, lazy salute and one shouldered shrug to Izumo and Kotetsu.

In silence, the two masked shinobi vanished again, Sakura between them.

As an ANBU team, they were deadly. They started and ended wars before they began. But a village wasn’t-- couldn’t be -- known for its masked operatives. It had to have faces, names and flee on sight orders. Namikaze Minato, Hatake Sakumo, the Legendary Sannin, Hatake Kakashi-- there had to be names and faces. A reputation.

Kiri’s hunter-nin were as efficient as Konoha’s ANBU, but it was the Swordsmen that struck apprehension in the hearts of other villages. Likewise, the leaf relied on her power houses.

Haruno Sakura was a member of Team 7. She was a Kage candidate. Some ninja weren’t sent on covert ops; some ninja were sent to be visible. _Sakura_ was an omen as much as a person, a yell and the frisson of unstoppable force, cherry blossoms and ground-shaking might.

She could also heal any ailment and often did, working miracles for the poorer village civilians who sometimes had never seen a shinobi, much less a medic-nin.

It sent whispers through the rural farmland, bolstered their reputation, and pleased the Daimyo in his court.

Her team was there to pick up the pieces.

“Why do you always get hurt on these missions?” Naruto groused, letting porcelain fall from his fingers onto the couch.

“Perks of the job,” Sakura grunted, leaning into him mostly because _warm_.

Sai’s laughter was more an exhale, lightly rippling ribs, but they knew him and loved it, the quiet joy.

“Mmm,” Sakura hummed, making grabby fingers in his direction without, actually, moving her forearms or biceps. It was more a twitching of fingers, arms still limp at her sides. She dropped her forehead on Naruto’s shoulder.

Jinchuuriki warm, a furnace of barely-concealed power. Like a blanket over a bonfire. His skin was warm to contain it, oceans of warm chakra even _without_ Kurama’s.

Sai indulged her, running ghostly fingers through her hair, sweaty and dirty though it was.

She made unhappy-but-pleased noises into the cloth next to Naruto’s armor. Golden skin, arms bare, swirl of scarred-tissue-- and hadn’t _that_ been fun to make stick-- visible on one shoulder. Sakura wondered how much of Tsunade’s decision to shove him into the corps was to get him out of the stupid jumpsuit, and how much was because it was an excellent way to get him into the field without bridges named after him and international crises happening. He certainly wasn’t happy to sit in the village.

Sai rumbled air out once more, and she sensed more than saw the lopsided smile he was sporting. Naruto’s breathing was familiar, a small amount of rasp to it. He hummed, one warm hand coming up to brush sweaty bangs from her temple.

Rough lips pressed to her forehead, burning hot.

“Stupid.” He chastised her quietly.

She sighed, perfectly content. She could always hit him later. None of them had bothered with the lights, merely shed their masks in the living room. It was Sakura’s apartment, nominally, but Sai had half-a-studio in the living room and one cabinet was stuffed full of instant ramen.

Now that Sakura was still, _finally_ , she felt her chakra start to regroup, build up from rock bottom as a green-blue wave of energy. It suffused through her, barely any at all needed with her control, and she lazily directed it to her injuries with a wisp of thought.

It felt like the northern lights in the shadows of the living room, pretty chakra spreading softly between her ribs and her boys breathing softly around her.

She didn’t know when she fell asleep, but she awoke to gentle-- heartbreakingly gentle-- hands sliding off her flak jacket.

“You have fractured ribs,” Sai breathes, barely audible even with his mouth quite close to her head.

“Bruised,” Sakura corrects, lips barely moving. “Don’t tell him. Healing.”

Her voice rumbles out, half asleep.

She would marvel at how easily she trusts, not snapping awake as a shinobi is trained, but Naruto’s chakra is a beacon she’d felt five miles out from the gates, now suffusing the entire apartment and so _much_ in her lungs she might as well be at a sauna, and Sai’s is curled smoke, shadows and well-worn wooden handles, worn-smooth furniture and safe, quiet spaces. Library bookshelves.

Her brain makes sloppy connections, parsing chakra-sense into words and tastes. She doesn’t stir much, even when Sai’s careful fingers slide off the tactical turtleneck of knife-resistant material. It goes over her head easily enough.

When it slides past her head, her hair fans out, gross pink strands spilling over the pillow she keeps on the couch.

“Can’t go to bed wi’ gross hair,” She complains, mumbling unhappily, nose scrunched up.

Sai pauses above her.

“No,” He agrees, not so quiet this time. “You need a bath.”

She barely wants to move _now_.

“I’ll never leaavveee,” She argues, though the thought of hot water right now sends curling happiness through all of her muscles. Like a cat wiggling its butt, she thinks.

But effort.

“Let me,” Sai says, soft as night falling on a sleeping village.

“Mmm,” she hums, sleepily pleased as she goes from decently warm couch to _human_ warm arms, none of the awkwardness and fumbling that comes from civilians or genin or chunin trying to lift comrades. Just easy and strong. Hardly a transition at all.

Familiar energy, trusted hands.

“You got her?” Naruto asks, whisper quiet. For Naruto, at least. A murmur. She can never tell where he is by chakra alone unless he’s close enough to touch or far enough away to be out of sight. Otherwise he’s just-- warm. Present. There.

Now he’s so near her face turns toward him without thinking, like one would turn cheek to a sunbeam. Palpable warmth. Comfort.

Safety.

“Don’t drop her,” Naruto says, still quiet but more normal. Amused.

“What do you take me for?” Sai mutters back, but they’re both smiling.

Bantering.

“Pay attention to me,” Sakura mumbles, cracking one eye open.

So much effort.

“Oh?” Sai asks. “Are you awake now?”

“Show’s what you know.” Sakura slurs, managing a smile.

“Bath time.” Naruto says, and it’s obvious when Sai hands her over. He’s so _warm_. She groans, low and pleased, curling into the heat.

“Don’t wanna,” She argues reasonably.

“Oh, so you _like_ being covered in all the dirt of earth country?” Teasing, warm. Warm warm warm.

“Wet.” She grumbles, as though that explains it all. “Then I have to get dressed, an’...”

She trails off, half-heartedly cataloguing the movement. The light changes against her eyelids, still soft but brighter now. Bathroom smells, soap and sweet things.

“Pants,” Naruto commands, maneuvering her so that he’s only holding her upper body. When had she wrapped her arms around his neck?

She didn’t want to let go.

“Yes,” Naruto argues, as though she’d protested. She probably had. Unhappy noises fled her throat.

“‘M not awake enough.”

There, coherent and logical.

They wouldn’t want her to drown.

Her feet hang down, almost touching the cold linoleum.

The sound of a tap turning, water pouring. The temperature of the room goes up, humidity rising.

Sai, moving around until he’s behind her, hands sliding on Naruto’s forearms, around her waist.

Lips near her ear.

“Sakura,” He says, the barest hint of chastising.

She lets her head loll back onto one of his shoulders. He’s more than close enough, body heat pressed along her back.

One of his hands, cool only in comparison to Naruto’s, trails along her jaw like a whisper, down one shoulder.

It’s Naruto’s breathing that gets a little faster, barely obvious in the room.

“She’s not gonna…” Naruto, quiet again, or maybe Sakura’s just asleep. It’s hard to stay awake, warm and safe and safe and warm.

Hands on her, soft and easy.

Moving around, but not very much.

Sakura pulls her eyes open to Naruto’s soft shoulder under her forehead again, bare this time. He smells like apples, cinnamon. The faintest twinge of sweat. Pie at Tsunade’s, laughter between rooftops, flying.

Sai’s breath fans out warm against her bare shoulder blade, still pressed close. His hands slide down her hips, fingers dipping into the waistband of regulation pants, dragging them down. Her own breathing changes a bit.

She lets him maneuver her legs through them, soft palms trailing down her calves as she steps out of them.

No shoes, but she hadn’t had any when they came into the bathroom.

“There,” Sai murmurs into her skin, words a kiss to the same shoulder blade. All the emotions that color Sai’s words in these quiet moments are faint, pastel-- his tone white, the feelings touching it just the barest drop of color. This time it’s blue amusement and soft touch of purple exasperation, pink happiness. Dawn sky.

“Happy,” She notes, voice still sleepy.

Naruto’s cheek, warm against hers, flesh to flesh as he leans down, brushes her face with his.

“Yeah” He breathes.

They lower her into the bath, already drawn. Heat seeps into her skin immediately and she moans, low in her throat and indecent. It’s decadent. An entire layer of grime slides free of her skin.

It’s gross but she can’t care, sinking down to her shoulders and letting the hot water ease her aches. Her shoulder twinges and she batts chakra that way, feeling it lazily knit muscle back together properly, pain seeped away by the hot water.

Sakura doesn’t know how long she soaks before a soapy loofah brushes one shoulder. She kicks out lazily, water splishing around her knee. It tickles a little, mostly because it’s unexpected.

A half-hum, barely audible and as good as words. Sai. The loofah slides down her ribs, along one leg. She stretches to accommodate it. Then the other. Both arms, starting at the collar bones and slipping over her shoulders. Back down again, over wrists and elbows, under her arms and down her ribs.

The water is drained and replaced, handheld shower attachment rinsing away all the soap in the meanwhile so she never has time to feel cold. The new water is warm, too.

Warm hands run through her hair, half wet. The heat and the touch have her arching a little.

God, yes.

Naruto laughs a little hum, amusement clear, huffs a laugh when she tilts her head back easily enough to accommodate him.

“You’re washing my hair,” She says, not really surprised and not really bothering to move her mouth much, either, the words barely audible.

“Should I not?” Naruto’s fingers don’t pause, dragging slowly through her hair, pressing into her scalp, detangling and dipping strands into the water.

“Stop and die.” She says, expending the energy to enunciate a little better even as she relaxes further into it.

“Mmm,” She groans, enjoying it. “Where’s Sai?”

“He went to go put your towels in the dryer for a few minutes, so they’re warm when you get out.” Affection colours his voice loudly, for all that his volume is gentle in deference to the quiet of the night, the easy comfort of the apartment.

The same fondness is heavy in her chest, tightening her throat, tinging her next few breaths.

“Cold,” Naruto warns, hands leaving her hair. They return before she can protest, shampoo indeed cold but warming as he rubs it in, lathers softly.

“Worth it.” She says easily, rolling her shoulders to disturb the water and feel the heat all over again.

“Rinse,” Naruto says, some few seconds later, and she tilts her head to accommodate the handheld. Hot water seeps into her scalp, runs down her face and neck.

“Done,” Naruto says, dragging his fingers one more time through her hair and pulling away.

She blinks open her eyes, pleasantly soap free.

“Conditioner?”

“I used mine.” Naruto admits, smiling, though she can’t see it. “Two-in-one.”

“Men,” Sakura exhales, but she smiles too.

The sound of the dryer cuts off; she only notices it had been going by its absence.

Sai walks in; this time she’s aware enough to look at him, notice the zip-up crop top and soft black pants. His downtime preferences were always more shinobi than Naruto’s, but the recent sojourn into ANBU gear has even the latter in regulation pants and nothing else.

“Splash radius,” Naruto admits, in reference to his bare chest. He stretches long, gilded arms high above his head. Sakura pulls her eyes away in time to see Sai doing the same.

He smiles at her, crooked and eyes soft, raising a towel in silent question. There’s another tossed over his shoulder.

The thought of standing under her own power is less, ‘ugh god no’ and more the usual unwillingness one has to leave a hot bath. Still, she catches the chain of the plug with her toes and pulls, lays a slender hand on the edge of the bath and pushes herself up, standing carefully.

This time, nothing twinges.

“Gimme,” She orders, stretching fingers out to Sai. He proffers the warm, soft towel like a solemn gift and she wraps it gamely around herself. It is indeed heated through and it’s that, perhaps, which gives her the willpower to step out of the tub entirely.

Naruto drops the other towel on her head, leaving it like an oversized tent for a second-- mostly to be a brat-- before hands weigh down on it, leaving the warm ends on her bare shoulders but towel-drying the top of her head messily.

“Naruto,” She complains, voice muffled by white fabric.

“Did your hair take longer to dry when it was long?” Sai asks, curious.

“Yeah, but that was forever ago. You didn’t know me then.” She sounds nostalgic even to her own ears. Dismissive, though.

“Probably for the best,” He admits, stepping closer. When she pushes Naruto away and lifts the towel off her eyes, Sai is there. She stops in the act of rubbing the towel on the hair at her nape, watching him.

He takes a lock of her bangs carefully.

“You could grow it out?” More question than suggestion. “Braid it.”

And with someone else, it would be an admission of want, but Sai is really just making conversation. Trying.

Affection swells in her heart.

“Nah.” She says. Enamor for the hairstyle was born with a lesson learned and a destiny taken into her own hands, her first steps as a badass, but now it’s just _her_. She’s short hair, pink hair, steel-plated gloves and scary to see coming. She likes it.

Sai smiles at her, pleased.

Naruto makes a happy sound, ruffling her hair-- she shoos him away, one hand going to her towel’s clasp.

“Well, only one thing to do now,” Naruto says, and doesn’t stop speaking in a sure voice even as he swoops her up mid-sentence, careful of the towel.

One hand under her knees, the other around her toweled back and then they’re just _on_ the bed, or she is, at least, too quick to even process as a blur. She flops down onto a soft mattress cursing, room lit up with Naruto’s buoyant laughter.

“You--!” She rolls like a log when she’s tumbled out of his arms, on top of the comforter. He just laughs louder.

She’s elbows and knees akimbo and then elbows and knees under her, and then just knees, hands grabbing where shoulder meets neck in lieu of a collar and _pulling_ backwards, letting herself fall but taking him with her to a surprised shout and flaily arms.

When Sakura pulls, even gently, there’s really no recourse.

 _Ha_ , she thinks, even as air _oofs_ out of her from his weight. She tilts them to the side to breathe better, elbows him in the ribs, and kicks his shin a little, brushing wet hair back from her face.

He’s very, very warm. Sakura’s free hand falls to his chest, falling and rising fast with laughter and surprise. It doesn’t feel like a choice at all to lean up and over and kiss him.

It’s like the culmination of years of friendship, closeness, comradery; love and safety and fearlessness, affection, of being _allowed_ and admitted, unquestioned. Like home.

He makes a tiny surprised sound-- mostly garbled vowels-- that dies between their mouths, moves just a little until he’s better balanced, half over her and one hand braced beneath him, one hand brushing a thumb over her cheek. Naruto kisses back like it was never a question.

Like a teammate in a bed and one last boundary falling away.

“You’re kissing me,” He mutters, quiet and it should be surprised, carries the _potential_ of surprise, but isn’t, not really. He doesn’t pull away.

“Should I not?” She echoes, smiling into his lips.

She expects a laugh, maybe a joke or a question or-- she barely has time to form expectations. He smiles and it’s like a sunrise dawning on his face, like perfect happiness and it’s _Naruto_ \--

Her breath isn’t the only one that catches.

Sakura turns her head a bit to see Sai, standing in the doorway looking fragile and punch-drunk, staring at Naruto’s smile and hesitation in every line of his body, _want_ traced along his shoulders, pointedly not reaching.

She doesn’t look to Naruto, reaching out almost before she can think about it.

This isn’t a choice, either. Not really.

Sai comes to bed easily, gracefully, climbs on and presses onto her other side, so sure of his welcome at her gesture that she has to blink away something not like awe or sadness but that does wet her eyes for half a blink.

No second guesses, not with Sai, taking everything-- from them, at least-- at face value, with perfect trust.

She rolls in Naruto’s arms, fingers reaching and finding fabric. This time she tugs Sai close by the actual collar, brings their mouths close. He looks surprised and also like he’s been kicked, a little, like all the air has gone out of him and she kisses his slack mouth, the gentle press of lips.

Then she grabs his face in her hands and kisses him more solidly.

Say what you want about Sai, but he is a trained operative.

He’s done this before and muscle memory is an excellent thing. A hand loops around her back easily, pulling her closer. The other slips around to tangle in her hair and what started as a sweet confirmation has her pulling in air, stunned and _willing_ and liquid heat pooling between her legs.

“ _Fuck_ ,” Naruto breathes, low and fervent. When they both look over his pupils are blown, wet bottom lip and jaw dropped a little, panting.

They move at the same time, accosting him.

“Woah!” Naruto says, hands flying up like a drowning man and they the waves that capsize him, getting him from either side, Sakura pinning down one arm and Sai the other.

She’s half-on his right side, pressing kisses to his cheek bone, drawing a slack mouth with no pressure over jaw and nuzzling his neck, trailing fingers down his chest and back up again.

Sai is on his left, slender-long-pale fingers around Naruto’s left wrist high above his head, other hand pressed to the front of his thigh and kissing him, slow and unbothered and savoring.

Sakura pulls back a little to watch, warmth curling through her belly and dipping low, excitement quickening between her thighs because holy _fuck_ , the picture they make, dark head bent low to blonde and Sai’s skin dappled even paler by the moonlight, slanting in and painting the bed white and shadow.

Naruto gasps like he’s forgotten how to breathe, but Sai keeps kissing him until he’s smiling so wide it _has_ to hurt his whiskered cheeks. Sai finally relents, drawing back with his brows drawn together, equal parts fondly exasperated and thwarted.

“Why?” Sai wonders, honest and curious and lovely, tracing a thumb over the stretch of Naruto’s grin.

“Happiness,” Naruto answers back, voice rough and looking thoroughly kissed but still grinning stupidly.

Sai smiles, at that, small and surprised and real.

He looks to Sakura, almost like he wants to _share_ this and her heart will probably always do somersaults for Sai, so precious to her, similar to how it stretches wide as the sands of wind country for Naruto, feeling too big for her body but just big enough to fit both of them.

“Don’t look at me, I’m happy, too.” She smiles, leaning in and kissing his cheek. Then she leans down and kisses Naruto, grin and all, and tugs his bottom lip with her teeth until he growls and then they’re all laughing, flipping, positioning and loving, loving, loving.

It’s her apartment, but it might as well be all of theirs, and nothing really changes in the morning.

They’ve been hers for a while now.

And she will always be theirs.

 


End file.
